‘Stop the crocodile tears’: How a judge silenced a remorseless killer

Sometimes, defence barristers have to try to defend the indefensible and this was the lot of Lucinda Thies.

After the dreadful details of the crime are read, Thies takes the well-travelled path of suggesting her client is remorseful and acted out of character. It is clear the no-nonsense Hollingworth thinks this is complete nonsense.

The judge stops the barrister to describe the pathetic performance of her client that the barrister couldn’t see as she was at the bar table facing the judge.

“He put his head in his hands, he was shaking. It was the most dramatic – given the material I’ve seen about his complete lack of remorse for her [the victim], to be doing that; turning it on, apparently for my benefit.

“I do not accept he has genuine regret for what he did to Ms Lezsak ... The moment I told him to pull himself together, he sat upright, he was miraculously able to control his emotions, and I maintain my description of crocodile tears.”

Any suggestion of remorse is sunk by his own words in a prison phone call to his parents where he continues to blame his victim. “It was as though she poured petrol onto the fire ... That woman wrecked all of that for me. She wrecked everything for me. It was a blackout. She ripped my heart out of my chest, and she took everything from me.”

Little wonder Hollingworth is unimpressed. You get the feeling when the judge does sentence him, his tears may be very real.

Kaera Douglas, the partner of Jye Carter, the father of Lezsak’s twin children, was apprehensive the first time she met Lezsak. But any concerns immediately melted away.

“I met her in December 2022. She welcomed me with open arms. She was the most beautiful person both inside and out that I have ever met. She was amazing. I thought we would become great friends for life, but we didn’t get the chance.”

Douglas is a family violence survivor, repeatedly beaten and choked by her boyfriend, bikie Christopher Wayne Hudson, who took her dignity, her independence and very nearly her life.

On the morning of Monday, June 18, 2007, just as city workers were arriving at their jobs, Hudson began to beat Douglas in the street. “He grabbed me and said: ‘Today is the day you are going to die.’ I tried to make a run for it, then he shot me in the stomach.”

Solicitor Brendan Keilar, 43, a father of three, and Paul de Waard, a 25-year-old Dutch backpacker, tried to step in. Keilar was shot and died near the corner of William Street and Flinders Lane. De Waard and Douglas (who lost a kidney) survived.

Douglas is speaking to us because she believes Lindemann should be jailed for life. (One feels Hollingworth would agree with her, but may be constricted by the need to provide a sentence discount due to the killer’s guilty plea.)

“He is a cold-blooded killer who has shown absolutely no remorse. He doesn’t deserve to walk among us. We have to change the culture of a minority of men responsible for an epidemic. This has to stop,” she says.

Lezsak’s mother-in-law, Annette Carter, remained close with the family and regularly visited to see the twins.

The first time she met Lindemann, she found him “weird”.

“He was all over me and in my face. He wanted all the attention, and I was there to visit the twins. It was all about him, he was a real show pony.”

At dinner, he moved next to her to say she reminded him of his own mother before bursting into tears.

She feels he wanted to dominate the time to keep her away from her grandchildren. “I thought of Monique as my own daughter. She was a beautiful person. I still can’t comprehend that she is gone.”

Lindemann’s self-serving suggestion that he snapped and blacked out is self-deluded, pathetic and contrary to the facts. His actions make him a monster, his excuses make him a coward.

Here are the facts. Lezsak, 39, a caring mother to her twins, Lily and Leo (not their real names), is devoted to fitness, winning several elite bodybuilding competitions.

Lindemann, then 51, also a bodybuilder, tried to blame the use of steroids for his murderous outburst.

They became a couple, but Lezsak remains concerned with Lindemann’s cold relationship with the twins. It is as if their presence interferes with the attention the “show pony” craves.

On a trip to Queensland, Lezsak meets a man, and they begin to exchange texts.

In early May 2023, Lezsak tries to end her relationship with Lindemann. In the next two weeks, he veers from abusing her to self-pity and seeking couples counselling.

Lezsak has transferred her savings to Lindemann for a deposit to buy a family home. They remain living with her parents in their Endeavour Hills home.

He finds the identity of the other man, sending him threatening texts.

On the night of May 29, she leaves the family home twice to get away from him and later sleeps in her daughter’s room. Lindemann enters the room for another blazing row. Lily wakes crying.

Lindemann contacts his work to say he will not be coming in. About 6.15am on May 30, he enters the kitchen as Lezsak’s father, Zoltan, is preparing for work. He tells Zoltan his daughter is crazy, and he will grab his possessions and leave.

Lily and Leo are on the futon in the living room talking to their grandmother when they hear screams from the master bedroom. It is 7.32am.

Lily, 10, runs in to see her mother being stabbed so violently the knife breaks.

Lindemann punches and strangles the wounded woman while dragging her from the en suite to the kitchen to grab another weapon from the knife block.

Lily yells, “Leave my mother alone.” He screams at Lezsak, “You have ruined my life.”

Unbelievably, the little girl manages to kick and disarm the bodybuilder, snatching the knife and throwing it on the kitchen floor. He grabs another, again breaking it in the frenzied attack.

A second time, Lily grabs the weapon, but he gets another. He uses six knives to stab Lezsak 17 times.

Lily continues to fight, although she is injured five times and will need stitches in three wounds.

Injured and seeing her mother being killed before her, she uses voice recognition to call emergency services. The call is automatically transferred to triple zero. Lezsak’s mother, Maggie Peril, hears Lily pleading, “Stay with me mum, stay with me”.

Lily tells the triple zero operator her mother is dead, and the killer is in the house.

The operator transfers the call to a police sergeant. She tells the police officer she has tried CPR but Lezsak is dead. Both the mother and the daughter are covered in blood. Lily says to the sergeant, “My heart’s shattered in pieces, my mum, I loved her so much.”

She is pleading with her mother not to leave her.

It is now 7.36am and as the mortally wounded woman and her injured and heartbroken child lay on the dining room floor, Lindemann retreats to the bedroom where he jumps online and transfers $71,000 of their funds to another account, apparently trying to hide it from his victim’s family.

This is hardly the actions of someone who has lost control.

He then stabs himself.

Police arrive and rescue Lily who screams at them to save her brother who remains in the house. The police cover his eyes so he doesn’t see his mother’s body.

Douglas says Lindemann “is a butcher”.

“I hope [Lily] receives a bravery award. She fought so hard to try and save her mother.”

Lezsak’s former partner, Jye Carter, says: “I want Monique to be remembered. We both loved the kids so much. He shouldn’t be able to do a plea deal. I want the world to know what he has done. Life with no release is the only answer.”

If you or anyone you know needs support, you can contact the National Sexual Assault, Domestic and Family Violence Counselling Service on 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732).

John Silvester lifts the lid on Australia’s criminal underworld. Subscribers can sign up to receive his Naked City newsletter every Thursday.